Novelist. Husband. Volunteer.

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Our False Democracy

Simply put, democracy never existed. Neither did the Republic. It is understood by few in the Western World that what we live under is restricted for our own good. The experiment that started in 1776 was never an experiment at all. Even then, items such as the Electoral College point towards the truth: No one believed that the will of the people was the right path to follow.

“We have given you a Republic. It remains to be seen if you will be able to retain it.” I cannot say whether or not Benjamin Franklin knew he was lying when he uttered these words. The men inside the Continental Congress knew that the will of the masses was the philosophy of the day. They also knew that the only experiment thus far—the French Revolution—led to decades of discord.

What government does one create with these two pieces of information at hand? The United States. A country that gives its people the perception of control. In reality, the reigns stayed the group they referred to as the aristocracy. Today we call it the 1%. The people try to make their vote count. No matter how hard they try, however, it will fail.

You try to stay informed, but all news is presented through a filter controlled by the wealthy. You fall into partisan traps—screaming about slavery, civil rights, abortion. You fail to see that social issues are being used against you. You focus your attention there while the glue of the system is elsewhere—in the money.

Ask yourself this question: If a republic is supposed to represent the will of the people, how is it that millions go hungry while hundreds take home billions? It doesn’t fit, does it? Yet, it has been happening for more than two centuries—from Vanderbilt to Rockefeller to Ford to Koch. When we talk about history, we talk about social change and war.

How have we failed to realize the decades-long death grip that the 1% has on this country. No. That’s the first mistake, isn’t it? It isn’t just the United States. It’s the whole world. After all, the world is flat when it comes to modern economics. I can sit in this quant Coloradoan town and worry about the debt crisis in Greece because the world economy is endlessly interwoven in this new millennia.